


Of What Has Come To Pass

by nimrodcracker



Series: a blinding flash [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Background F!LW/Amata, Companionable Snark, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 03:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4944874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimrodcracker/pseuds/nimrodcracker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day, her Pip-Boy picks up on Vault 101's distress signal. It's nice, knowing that the folks back home still remember her. </p><p>Too bad she doesn't know what to do about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of What Has Come To Pass

**Author's Note:**

> More Sydney is always good.

_This is an automated distress message from Vault-Tec: Vault 101._

"You've been listening to it for the past hour, kid."

Well, maybe slightly lesser than that, but the twang of the protectron's modulators never sat well with her. It reminded Sydney of the electrical burr of pulse grenades, and that instance when she triggered a grenade nest in the Mall. It had been a second of inattention, but it brought about a few week's worth of stings and peeling skin that she hadn't enjoyed at all.

Oh, and had she mentioned that she had to outrun a number of raiders at the same time? Fun times indeed, just for bunch of relics.

_Message begins: It feels like you left home a long time ago, but I know you're still out there._

"It's the soundtrack of my life, Syd. Of course I'll listen to it."

An impressive retort, certainly, had it come from a woman who _wasn't_  curled in a ball.

Still, Sydney took it as a good sign. "You can just tell me you're feeling homesick, y'know. So, you planning to go?"

I just hope you're still alive to hear this. Things got worse after you left. My father's gone mad with power.

Jenessa sat up on her bed with a jolt. "Go _back_? I...I don't know. I mean, _yes_ , but-"

"Honestly?" Sydney heaved a sigh. "Just go, before you can't. Regret's not worth it."

It irked Sydney, hearing how those few words had been uttered in a near-whisper, but she knew why. She'd grown to hate her father after he left, but his last thoughts had been of his little Moonbeam.

Had _always_  been.

_If you can hear this, please stop looking for your dad and help stop mine. I changed the door password to my name._

When would Jenessa shut off the bloody message? The way it'd been blasted from her Pip-Boy for the last hour, Sydney already had it memorised.

Ever since they'd met, the kid had been prattling on _endlessly_  about life in the Vault. Three months later, Sydney could certainly rattle off Vault 101's history without a moment's thought, if anyone bothered to ask.

Jenessa wouldn't have shared that much if she didn't miss that life. So why was she hesitating?

"Jen," Sydney said. "You gonna say anything?"

Silence. The kid just looked at her.

On a hunch, Sydney pushed off the doorframe she'd been learning on. Crossing her arms, she cocked her head, hoping to get a rise out of the kid.

True to form, Jenessa pouted.

When Sydney raised a brow in the kid's direction, Jenessa _finally_  looked away, grumbling under her breath.

"Oh, fine," Jenessa huffed, hugging herself. "I'll do it. Got a bad feeling about this."

_If you're hearing this, and if you still care enough to help me, you should remember it._

"Can't be worse than trying to outrun muties in a dead alley, yeah?"

Jenessa uttered a strangled laugh, but Sydney knew it was a choked-back sob. " _Way_  to go, cheerleader. I already feel _so_  much better."

"Sometimes, I wonder why I agreed to hang around someone who's obviously a few screws loose in the head."

Message repeats.

"I know you love me, Syd. That, and you like to stare at my butt." Jen twisted a dial on her Pip-Boy, and the signal ebbed into silence.

" _Very_  funny, kiddo. I'm _certainly_  laughing my ass off." Sydney backed out of the room without a second glance.

She was intent on getting some shut-eye on the couch downstairs, but the lack of movement behind her had her doubling back in curiousity. A peek into the room revealed the kid _still_  lying on the bed.

"Aren't you gonna get a move on?" Sydney said, without any hint of surprise.

" _Ugh_." Jenessa rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow she clutched."I'm going, i'm _going_!"

Seconds passed before Jenessa stood and dragged her feet to the table, whose surface was cluttered with oddities scavenged from the wasteland - especially die-cast figurines from RobCo's line of robots.

The kid swiped for the messenger bag (which was already packed, Sydney realised) that lay past all that, knocking about the dissected innards of a plasma rifle scattered in a corner. After slinging her bag on a shoulder, Jenessa proceeded to rearrange those components in neat stacks on her workspace.

As always, Sydney clucked her tongue, showing the kid that she knew _exactly_  what the kid was up to - stalling. It was a nervous habit the kid seemed to do more frequently these days.

Jenessa smirked her best Cheshire impersonation. "Don't forget, I need to put on lipstick and maybe a bit of eyeliner too. Good impressions do count for something, see. It's a Pre-War thing."

" _Meanwhile_ -" Sydney practically _fled_  from the room "-I need to run over to Moira's before I strangle you."

Sydney headed into her room and towards her cot instead, all the while contemplating if shutting her door would be a heartless thing to do.

"I thought _you_  thought Moira was nuts?"

"Right now, her brand of nuttiness is preferable to yours." Sydney kicked off her boots, tucked her hands under her head, and slammed her eyes shut.

Sleep didn't engulf her as expected.

Sydney blew out a breath. " _Great_."

"Bye, Syd," Jenessa's voice floated in through the open door, before Sydney saw the woman walk down the steps. "Come and get me if I don't return in a few days."

"Should I bring a sack along? Or a tin can for your ashes?"

"Neither." Jenessa's laugh sounded fuller this time, and Sydney felt the heaviness in her chest lighten. "Iguana bits over that, anytime. I'm too used to wasteland fare, now."

The door creaked on its hinges once, before the house was silent once more, save for the quieting whine of Wadsworth powering down.

Sydney wasn't particularly religious, no thanks to the current state of the world, but she muttered a silent prayer all the same, hoping that whatever Jenessa was about to walk into, it wouldn't screw her over.

The way Sydney saw it, the poor kid didn't need more things on her mind.

==

A teaspoon of gunpowder, poured into the shell. A pinch of incendiary sprinkled after, followed by the screwing of the bullet cap into the filled round - and Sydney now held a live round in her hands.

Her fingers darted between the materials at her worktable - filling, uncapping, and twisting things, making the parts come together to form burnished bullets that she rolled off the table into a wooden crate by her feet.

Of course, the kid's been watching her work from behind her for some time now, but Sydney wasn't too bothered about it. Even after traipsing though the hills, the kid didn't smell too bad, so she could stick close to Sydney however much she wanted. But if the kid wasn't about to say anything, then Sydney would, if only to get this conversation out of the way.

Sydney didn't bother looking up from her work. "You look like shit, kid."

"Because the last few hours have been nothing _but_  shit." The brunette flopped against the workbench's leg struts, before placing the crate of ammunition on her lap. "So much for happy endings."

"What, they kicked you out?"

Jenessa picked a bullet from the crate and flung it over the bannister. " _Spot_  on. Ten points to my resident gunsmith. Shall I present you with a prize? Caps or a shiny, new gun?"

Sydney heard the jangle long before a loud crash shook the house, rattling the table and messing up her workspace. Below, Wadsworth trilled in annoyance, while Jen shook her head in her hands.

Wordlessly, Sydney stopped her tinkering and turned to face the kid. The petulant pout was there, but so was the uncharacteristic scrunch of Jen's brows. "There's more to that, ain't it?"

Well, _something_  had to have reduced the airy-fairy vaultie to this curt, morose lady. And that _something_  had to be immense.

"The name of the kid in the broadcast," Sydney prodded. "What's her name again?"

"Amata. And yeah, she kicked me out. _For the good of the Vault_ , " Jenessa sneered, complete with the air quotes.

This wasn't the affable woman who'd skipped over to Sydney back at the atrium of the National Archives, even with muties hot on her heels. Nor was this the woman who insisted they'd be alright, even when bullets were pinging all over the walls in the metro tunnels of Anacostia Crossing.

Then it clicked. "You liked her, didn't you? As in, _liked_  her."

A beat.

"She was my everything." Jen dipped her head a fraction. "Still is."

Hearing that, Sydney felt the urge to plant a fist through the nearest wall. Sometimes it looked as if life was out to get the kid.

Maybe her frown had given her away, because Jenessa hurriedly continued. "Look, Syd, don't take it the wrong way. I don't blame her at all, truly. I understand why she needed me to leave, cause of Vault stability and harmony and stuff, well, _Overseer_  stuff, but it just-it just fucking hurts. I've always held out the hope that I could return someday and have everything go back to normal but with Dad...gone, it's like being shredded into bits and I don't know where or what to do."

The kid was rambling again. "Jen."

"It's like when I left the first time, thrown out into this world which was so different from what I've been raised to believe in and that was _just_  the first few miles out, and then the worry set in, not knowing if I could see the sun rise again tomorrow - _heck_ , maybe not even lasting the next hour-"

Sydney grabbed Jenessa's shoulders, angling the woman to face her. " _Jen_. I know."

It was like the kid finally _saw_  her, the blankness in Jen's gaze clearing as she gaped at Sydney, mouthing silent words whose meaning was known only to herself.

That preceded the hysterical giggling. "Of course you'd know, right? Your dad left when you were just a kid. Younger than I was. How could I have forgotten."

Sydney relinquished her grip. "Psht. With everything that's happened to you these few weeks? Why _not_."

Sydney stood and beckoned Jenessa to follow. Some iced Nuka-Cola now would do the kid some good, since she detested the taste of Sydney's favourite pick-me-up: whiskey.

At the top of the stairs, Sydney could already see Wadsworth picking up things scattered on the floor. Lord knew the sight that would surely greet them.

At the bottom, Sydney found herself shaking her head slowly.  _Jesus, the mess Jenessa caused just by throwing a bullet..._

Jenessa spoke only when they started picking their way through the mess. "Syd, you know what? Let's start a gang."

"What, twenty and fatherless? Ornery orphans?"

"As long as it's not something lame like 'Tunnel Snakes'. Biggest bunch of bull-headed bigots I knew."

The pantry, however, was mercifully spared the mess, but Sydney doubted Jenessa even noticed.

When Sydney pulled out two bottles from the fridge, the kid touched her shoulder. "Syd, can we go out? Anywhere but here. I need some air."

"We've yet to snoop around the basement of Underworld yet, right?" Sydney said. She popped the cap of a chilled Nuka-Cola and handed both to the kid.

"Oh, _joy_. Another day sneaking in the dark for dusty scraps of paper and running away from glowing ones."

" _Please_." Sydney uncapped another for herself. "You _did_  accept Washington's crazy job."

"Fine, it was the caps. I really like caps," Jenessa said, fiddling with the bottle cap she held. "Shiny, jingling beauties. Precious, pretty things."

"Sometimes, I wonder if you're more of a nutjob than Moira."

"Well, there has to be a reason why I help her with her research, right?"

"'Course you do. Just like me, looking after some vaultie who's more likely to fall into a ditch while admiring the electric fence behind it."

Jenessa clasped her free hand over her heart. "Oh, Syd, you set my heart aflame with such _sweet_  words. The flames only burn brighter with the _zeal_  of ..."

Grinning, Sydney bonked Jenessa on the head with the Nuka-Cola bottle. "Now _that's_  more like the Jenessa I know."

They clinked bottles and glugged down their Nuka-Cola.

"Hey, Syd?" Jenessa spoke, once her bottle was three-quarters empty. "Thank you. I knew I could count on you."

"Yeah, yeah, I got your back. Just can the sappy shit, okay?"


End file.
